This post may contain affiliate links for which I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more info please check out my Disclosure Policy. Appreciate your support!
This one is for the chocolate lovers out there! I’m so excited to share this Ultimate Vegan Rocky Road with you all, it truly is epic! This dairy free rocky road is so incredibly simple to make and really satisfies those chocolate cravings. I guarantee once you’ve made this quick and easy rocky road recipe, you’ll be making it time and time again, it’s a total game changer!
Recipe Difficulty – Easy
Table of Contents
Why this recipe works
These perfectly sweet gluten free rocky roads look super impressive! The pistachios and cranberries that give that red and green vibe make it look as though it was bought from a shop, when the reality is that this rocky road recipe is such an easy to homemade win! It is also super versatile and is the perfect recipe if you need an easy and minimal prep sweet snack, but also perfect if you are sharing with friends or family over the Easter period.
I was inspired to create these vegan rocky roads as I’ve had chocolate on the mind! In the lead up to Easter I’ve been creating lots of new chocolatey recipes for you! My Chocolate Bounty Bars and Gluten Free Doughnuts are a massive favourite of mine as they remind me of my childhood, plus they’re a really fun recipe to get children involved with too.
I also added this recipe into my collection of 21 Gluten Free Easter Recipes, my best 33 Vegan Desserts and 35 Gluten Free Desserts round up!
Ingredients to make Vegan Rocky Road
- Cacao powder – This gives the rocky road its chocolate flavour, this is a really great ingredient to have in your cupboards and it is so versatile! I also use this to make my own Chocolate Truffles.
- Maple syrup – I love to use maple syrup as a natural, unrefined sweetener
- Coconut oil – I use coconut oil for texture and taste. The fat from the coconut oil make the chocolate in the rocky road taste extra creamy and silky, plus I like the subtle coconut flavours that adding coconut oil brings.
- Almond milk – Adding almond milk adds a milky, creamy texture to the dairy free rocky roads
- Nuts – I’ve used pistachios, pecans and almonds in my nut mix as they provide the perfect texture and crunch to this rocky road traybake.
- Cranberries – I’ve added dried cranberries to this easy rocky road recipe to really enhance the flavour and texture. They’re quite a sharp berry so don’t over sweeten the rocky roads.
See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions
- Nuts – use any of your favourites in this rocky road traybake, just aim to keep the total quantities the same.
- Fruit – not a fan of cranberries? Try dates, apricots, or raisins in this dairy free rocky road recipe! You could even remove the fruit entirely if you wish!
- Almond milk – You could be substitute with an alternative plant based milk such as soya milk or coconut milk.
- Vegan – this is a vegan rocky road recipe, but if you don’t necessarily need to remain vegan you can use a runny honey in place of the maple syrup or dairy milk instead of almond milk.
Variations
- Deluxe – If you wanted to make these vegan rocky roads look even more impressive you could add some vegan marshmallows into the recipe! I tend to freeze marshmallows in the freezer for around 10 minutes before adding them, this stops them melting and sticking together when you combine. You could also add some shredded coconut or even some orange zest for that extra zingy flavour! The great thing about this recipe is the versatility of it, if you wanted to add something, feel free!
- Kid friendly – This Vegan Rocky Road recipe is great to get the children involved in. It is nice and simple and anything with chocolate in will get their attention! I have a great 3 Ingredient Oat Cookie recipe which is another simple yet fun recipe for children to get involved in. My 5 Ingredient Chocolate Flapjacks is another family favourite you should definitely try!
How to make Vegan Rocky Road
Step 1: Firstly, add the nuts to a pan and lightly toast.
Hint: keep an eye on them as the time goes quickly and they can easily burn. Meanwhile, place the remaining ingredients, minus cranberries, in a blender and combine well.
Step 2: Now arrange half of the toasted nuts and fruit in a small lined pan and pour the prepared chocolate sauce evenly over the tray of nuts. Then press the remaining nuts and fruit into the top. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes or so, then remove and slice.
Hint: make sure and line your pan with plenty of overhang. This will allow you to remove the entire rocky road to a cutting board for easy portioning.
Leftovers
The best thing about this vegan rocky road recipe is that it lasts for a while, so perfect if you wanted to make some ahead of having friends over! Store this dairy free rocky road in an airtight container for up to 5 days. It is best to keep the rocky roads in the fridge so they last a little longer and to ensure the coconut oil doesn’t melt.
Recipe FAQs
Yes definitely! Store the vegan rocky road in an airtight container. When you’re ready to eat it, just leave it in the fridge until it is fully defrosted.
You definitely can, if you wanted to make this vegan rocky road nut free, remove the nuts entirely from the recipe and just use marshmallows and dried fruit instead! The great this about this rocky road recipe if you can add or remove anything you wish!
Some salt with sweet is always pleasant for me. I just don’t like to use all salted nuts as it quickly becomes overwhelming. However, this is totally your preference!
Yes of course, you can add whatever you wish! Sometimes I also add marshmallows!
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE…
Tried this Vegan Rocky Road recipe? Please leave a star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below and let me know how you get on. Hearing positive feedback is one of the best parts of creating recipes so please review it below and leave a comment!
P.S Never miss a new recipe! Get more healthy recipes sent straight to your inbox weekly – Subscribe and receive a free recipe eBook!
Vegan Rocky Road
Equipment
- Blender
- Baking tray
- baking paper
- small frying pan
Ingredients
- 70 g pecans
- 70 g almonds
- 50 g pistachios, (unsalted)
- 50 g dried cranberries
- 40 g cacao powder , (roughly 1/2 cup)
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp almond milk
- 200 g coconut oil melted
Instructions
- Firstly add all the nuts to a pan and lightly toast for 5 minutes
- Meanwhile make the chocolate sauce by adding the melted coconut oil, cacao powder, almond milk and maple syrup to a cup blender and blend until smooth (30 seconds)
- Line a small baking tray (9×6″) with baking paper and place in half the nuts and cranberries. Pour over the chocolate sauce then top the rest of the nuts and cranberries on top
- Place flat in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Remove and slice into squares or bars
Notes
Nutrition
Haven’t made the recipe yet. Planning on doing so when my Vegetarian friend comes round (because I always accidentally buy non-Vegetarian Rocky Road and he eats it reluctantly) But for the Deluxe version you mentioned, how many grams of Vegan Marshmallows do you add?
Thanks for reading and I await your response.
Hey Donald, I would say 100g of small marshmallows 🙂 enjoy!
Made these and they are absolutely lovely, not sweet, love the cranberries, I also added shredded coconut on top and flaky salt, i tan out of oat milk so I used heavy cream, worked out perfectly
So yummy!
Give it a try, you can’t go wrong!
Is 200grams of oil about a cup on the measuring cup
Quite a bit of coconut oil
Making it now
Keep you posted
Thank you
Can honey be used in place of maple syrup? Looking forward to making this-thank you for posting!
Hey Sharra, yes as long as it’s a runny variety
Amazing taste sensation. So easy to make.
How many calories do you think each slice is? Would love to know.
Thank you for creating this.
Can you help us American chaps convert measurements to cups, tablespoons, etc?
Hey Cindy, I will only be doing that myself by googling 🙂
Can’t taste difference between this vegan recipe and traditional RR! It’s amazing.
Would like to see approx calorie count shown on recipes tho.
Yay glad you enjoyed them Rich 🙂 I understand, but I don’t count calories as it’s not an important factor to me so my website follows suit on that and it won’t change unfortunately.
Wow, wow, wow. I finally made this today. It is fabulous. My only comment is that my chocolate sauce was so thick I had to add some of the still hot nuts to melt the sauce to enable me to pour it over the rest of the nuts. But it tastes fantastic
Hey Catherine, sorry about that! I assume it’s down to different branded products making it so thick! Potentially the milk, I use quite a thin almond milk (Rude Health) so thicker plant-based milks might make the mix thicker. I would just add more milk in that case to thin it out 🙂